While the Bush Administration is planning on asking Congress for retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies (in relations to it's past requests that telco's turn over information to the NSA for "Homeland Security" purposes), Verizon throws it's own bone in the fire. It may seem self serving and ridiculous at first, but Verizon is asking for the consolidated lawsuit against it to be thrown out. On First Amendment Free Speech Grounds. Sound a bit crazy? Perhaps, but read the quote below carefully and you'll realize Verizon has well reasoned merit for asking. Another reason to rethink the US Patriot Act we think. ArsTechnica Reports...

Essentially, the argument is that turning over truthful information to the government is free speech, and the EFF and ACLU can't do anything about it. In fact, Verizon basically argues that the entire lawsuit is a giant SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) suit, and that the case is an attempt to deter the company from exercising its First Amendment right to turn over customer calling information to government security services.

"Communicating facts to the government is protected petitioning activity," says the response, even when the communication of those facts would normally be illegal or would violate a company's owner promises to its customers. Verizon argues that, if the EFF and other groups have concerns about customer call records, the only proper remedy "is to impose restrictions on the government, not on the speaker's right to communicate."

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.